Heroes

We live in a pretty small town. You can’t run to the grocery store without seeing at least five people you know, everyone knows the mayor personally, and the local paper comes out once a week with feature stories about a new restaurant or boutique opening. We also have the typical small town parades, complete with fire engines, five zillion Pop Warner football players, and local business owners riding in their convertibles and waving like they just won a beauty pageant.

C loves parades desperately. He jumps up and down and shrieks with joy at each and every “float” going by, even if it’s just a bunch of kids in the back of a truck. He eagerly gathers up candy, yelling “Yay! Smarties!” as he stuffs them all in my hands for safekeeping. Nevermind that he doesn’t even eat candy, but collecting it is sure fun.

This year’s highlight at the Homecoming parade? Not his usual, which is listening to the high school band. No, this year, C’s absolute favorite thing was seeing his beloved P.E. teacher, Mr. S., riding on the float with the high school football players. You would’ve thought he’d seen a rock star or the President for all his excitement at the unexpected Mr. S. sighting.

It got me thinking about people C admires, and it’s a pretty neat list. He looks up to his teacher, President Obama, his favorite babysitter, his aunt and uncle, and the principal at his school. Not a single bad guy cartoon character or overpaid, drug using sports figure in the bunch. So having his PE teacher on the list? Well, that’s just fine with me.